Showing posts with label why prepare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label why prepare. Show all posts
Friday, November 19, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
I'm on a Podcast!
What? You don't know what a podcast is? That's okay mom, I didn't know either until about a year ago. Really. Anyway, if you've ever wanted to listen to me talk about preparedness for an hour and hardly let the host get a word in edgewise, now's your chance. Matthias at The Prepper Podcast had the opportunity to listen to me go on and on and on and he's kind enough to share the recording of it with all of you and anyone else who wants to listen. You don't even need a "pod" to listen to it. You can download it or just click play on the Prepper Podcast site. Easy. So go here and have a listen while you're fixing dinner or folding laundry or whatever. :) Enjoy!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Church in the Dark--Sunday's Inconvenience
Saturday we got more snow. Seriously. I'm all snowed out this year. I don't know if it was the snow or because of daylight saving time or maybe that it was the morning after closing night of the community theater play or maybe none of the above were to blame, but when sweet husband's phone alarm went off Sunday morning and I looked at my clock, nothing looked back at me. The power was out. On a Sunday morning. I know what you're thinking--a day off! But this was no ordinary Sunday. For my LDS readers, this was Stake Conference Sunday. For everyone else, twice a year a group of 4-5 LDS congregations near each other meets together and hears from the area leadership. Yesterday was that day, and we were expecting the stake leadership to go through some changes. It also means there are extra meetings. Hubby had to be to the 7-9 am meeting and I had to be at the 9:15-10:15 meeting, then the whole family at the 11:00 meeting. He looked down the road and there were street lights on, so he thought maybe the church had power, so he showered in the dark and got himself to his meeting. Well, the church didn't have power. It was dark. They lit up the pulpit with battery powered lanterns as well as they could and people used flashlights to read the music. It was also cold. No reason to take your coat off when you got there.
Meanwhile, I was back home, getting out of bed and getting ready. Thankfully, it wasn't dark anymore. I laughed at our situation. Generally when I've thought of an "emergency" I wasn't thinking I'd be trying to look nice and go to church. I washed my hair real quick, knowing I wouldn't have a blow dryer and then set to work heating water for hot cocoa and getting some oatmeal cooked for the kids. Our stove is gas, so it still works when the power is out, we just have to use a match to get it lit. That saved me having to go out to the shed and get the camp stove. By the time I was dressed and ready to go, my hair had partly dried, so I was able to use the propane curling iron (I've been corrected by my mom--it's butane, not propane) on some of it. It's not the best, but works in a pinch.
The "emergency" was minor--more inconvenient than life stopping. I'd just never considered being too concerned about how I looked in any kind of emergency. :)
After his meeting, sweet husband came home and picked me up and took me to my meeting. The power was still out, so we held that meeting in the dark also. Church in the dark is quite a memorable experience. I sat next to a friend of mine (our scout leader) and shared my flashlight. Yeah, you know the scout motto, "be prepared". He laughed and reminded me that this is the second time I've saved him with my flashlight--the first time his car battery had died at night and he didn't have jumper cables or a light and I had both, so we got him fixed up and back on the road. And he's the scout leader. Hilarious.
Anyway, after that meeting there was a little break before the general meeting started, so I sat down and saved a space for my family. This is usually quite a large meeting. We actually still had quite a good group considering the circumstances, although I heard of at least one who couldn't get out of their garage because the automatic doors wouldn't open. Others likely assumed the meeting was canceled for the power outage or just chose to stay home. The ushers used flashlights to show people to their seats. Families had to find each other in the dark. Interesting. My family showed up with flashlights, headlamps, etc. plus blankets for the kids and a friend caught them on their way in and told them where I was sitting.
Then, just as the meeting was going to start, the power came back on and we could all see again. Not that any of us ladies that got ready for church without power wanted to be seen much, but I really don't think people were judging. ;)
Meanwhile, I was back home, getting out of bed and getting ready. Thankfully, it wasn't dark anymore. I laughed at our situation. Generally when I've thought of an "emergency" I wasn't thinking I'd be trying to look nice and go to church. I washed my hair real quick, knowing I wouldn't have a blow dryer and then set to work heating water for hot cocoa and getting some oatmeal cooked for the kids. Our stove is gas, so it still works when the power is out, we just have to use a match to get it lit. That saved me having to go out to the shed and get the camp stove. By the time I was dressed and ready to go, my hair had partly dried, so I was able to use the propane curling iron (I've been corrected by my mom--it's butane, not propane) on some of it. It's not the best, but works in a pinch.
The "emergency" was minor--more inconvenient than life stopping. I'd just never considered being too concerned about how I looked in any kind of emergency. :)
After his meeting, sweet husband came home and picked me up and took me to my meeting. The power was still out, so we held that meeting in the dark also. Church in the dark is quite a memorable experience. I sat next to a friend of mine (our scout leader) and shared my flashlight. Yeah, you know the scout motto, "be prepared". He laughed and reminded me that this is the second time I've saved him with my flashlight--the first time his car battery had died at night and he didn't have jumper cables or a light and I had both, so we got him fixed up and back on the road. And he's the scout leader. Hilarious.
Anyway, after that meeting there was a little break before the general meeting started, so I sat down and saved a space for my family. This is usually quite a large meeting. We actually still had quite a good group considering the circumstances, although I heard of at least one who couldn't get out of their garage because the automatic doors wouldn't open. Others likely assumed the meeting was canceled for the power outage or just chose to stay home. The ushers used flashlights to show people to their seats. Families had to find each other in the dark. Interesting. My family showed up with flashlights, headlamps, etc. plus blankets for the kids and a friend caught them on their way in and told them where I was sitting.
Then, just as the meeting was going to start, the power came back on and we could all see again. Not that any of us ladies that got ready for church without power wanted to be seen much, but I really don't think people were judging. ;)
Friday, October 23, 2009
Living History to Learn Skills
I read a post at Preparedness Pro yesterday about the importance of learning skills. Acquiring useful skills is actually something I've thought about a lot in case you couldn't tell by all the crazy stuff I share with you that I've been doing. I believe that having a quiver full of skills and things you've actually tried is way better than having a library of books about self sufficiency. Now don't get me wrong, your resource books are very important. It's just that having experience with something, even if it didn't go so well, gives you so much more to work with.
The type of skills that were the focus of the article were the skills that will make you an asset to society if it ever needs rebuilt from a major disaster or TEOTWAWKI type situation. Skills like blacksmithing, woodworking, weaving, sewing, leatherwork, candle and soap making. Skills that were everyday and ordinary in the past but are not as necessary in our world of convenience and electricity. Unfortunately, because of that, many of these skills just aren't taught anymore. But I wanted to let you all in on a great resource for learning some of the "old time" skills (no, it's not my mother). It's historical reenactments or living history events.
There are so many different groups that organize and participate in historical reenacting or living history events. I bet there's one near you. These events usually range from a few hours to a week long, and encompass many different time periods. Everything from vikings to pioneers to World War II and everything in between.
Our family participates in historical reenacting of the colonial and mountain man eras (1770's-1840). We've been doing this since my kids were very small, in fact the littlest turned 2 months old at her first rendezvous. Besides being a great family activity, these types of living history events are an amazing resource for learning skills from the past. Through reenacting, I've been able to take classes on different types of weaving and cordage, outdoor cooking, flint/steel firemaking, basketweaving, butter making, tanning leather, and the list goes on. Sweet husband has taken some of the same classes plus done some blacksmithing classes as well. 
You can learn to make knives and other weapons, shoot guns appropriate to the era, and primitive archery.
You can even learn to throw knives and tomahawks. (Yes, she's only 4 here, yes, she popped the balloon with her own tomahawk, and yes, it's scary how consistent she is with it--watch out future boyfriends!)
Get to an event and ask questions. Most re-enactors are more than willing to share what they know. If you meet one that's not, go ask someone else. Some events have organized classes, others don't. You might need to get out of your box and strike up conversation to learn the skills you want to know.
Attending these events as a visitor is a good start, but will only give you half the experience. Why not step up and become a participant? Then you too can experience the joys of primitive dishwashing!
You learn how creative you can get when the whole family is cramped in a little tent while the rain pours, how fast or slowly shoes dry out, how to wash hands, faces, hair, clothes, and dishes with minimal water, how long making a fort of sticks and rocks in the woods can occupy a boy, how to string canvas together to make a shelter when the tent isn't big enough anymore--you get the picture. It is exhausting and fun and educational all rolled into one.
And you get to do it all . . .
wearing . . .
really . . .
cute clothes!
Here's some ideas to find your nearest living history event:
Check this page at wikipedia.
Or this site for a listing of events.
Search for your state muzzle loading association and contact them to see if they sponsor any events.
Ask your local chamber of commerce.
Ask the "locals" in your community.
Watch out for flyers or notices in the newspaper.
Sometimes even the TV news crews will cover events.
So if you're looking to learn some "old" skills, give some thought to giving living history a try--you might find out you really like it! :)
The type of skills that were the focus of the article were the skills that will make you an asset to society if it ever needs rebuilt from a major disaster or TEOTWAWKI type situation. Skills like blacksmithing, woodworking, weaving, sewing, leatherwork, candle and soap making. Skills that were everyday and ordinary in the past but are not as necessary in our world of convenience and electricity. Unfortunately, because of that, many of these skills just aren't taught anymore. But I wanted to let you all in on a great resource for learning some of the "old time" skills (no, it's not my mother). It's historical reenactments or living history events.
There are so many different groups that organize and participate in historical reenacting or living history events. I bet there's one near you. These events usually range from a few hours to a week long, and encompass many different time periods. Everything from vikings to pioneers to World War II and everything in between.
Our family participates in historical reenacting of the colonial and mountain man eras (1770's-1840). We've been doing this since my kids were very small, in fact the littlest turned 2 months old at her first rendezvous. Besides being a great family activity, these types of living history events are an amazing resource for learning skills from the past. Through reenacting, I've been able to take classes on different types of weaving and cordage, outdoor cooking, flint/steel firemaking, basketweaving, butter making, tanning leather, and the list goes on. Sweet husband has taken some of the same classes plus done some blacksmithing classes as well. 
You can learn to make knives and other weapons, shoot guns appropriate to the era, and primitive archery.
You can even learn to throw knives and tomahawks. (Yes, she's only 4 here, yes, she popped the balloon with her own tomahawk, and yes, it's scary how consistent she is with it--watch out future boyfriends!)
Get to an event and ask questions. Most re-enactors are more than willing to share what they know. If you meet one that's not, go ask someone else. Some events have organized classes, others don't. You might need to get out of your box and strike up conversation to learn the skills you want to know.Attending these events as a visitor is a good start, but will only give you half the experience. Why not step up and become a participant? Then you too can experience the joys of primitive dishwashing!
You learn how creative you can get when the whole family is cramped in a little tent while the rain pours, how fast or slowly shoes dry out, how to wash hands, faces, hair, clothes, and dishes with minimal water, how long making a fort of sticks and rocks in the woods can occupy a boy, how to string canvas together to make a shelter when the tent isn't big enough anymore--you get the picture. It is exhausting and fun and educational all rolled into one.
And you get to do it all . . .
wearing . . .
really . . .
cute clothes!
Here's some ideas to find your nearest living history event:
Check this page at wikipedia.
Or this site for a listing of events.
Search for your state muzzle loading association and contact them to see if they sponsor any events.
Ask your local chamber of commerce.
Ask the "locals" in your community.
Watch out for flyers or notices in the newspaper.
Sometimes even the TV news crews will cover events.
So if you're looking to learn some "old" skills, give some thought to giving living history a try--you might find out you really like it! :)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Preparedness Enrichment Night
A few months ago I was asked if I would do an Enrichment night for the ladies at church about preparedness. Of course I said yes. Now, for those who don't know, the LDS church has a program for the ladies called Relief Society, and part of that is having activities or meetings called Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment meetings where we get together and learn things or go places or have a dinner or whatever the local Relief Society decides we need to do. So our Relief Society decided they wanted a night to talk about preparedness, and I got the call to teach it. Well, the night is supposed to be about 1-1 1/2 hours long and I was asked in the spring and didn't do it until last week, leaving me about 4 months to wonder how to teach preparedness in 90 minutes or less without having the sweet ladies falling asleep on me or scaring them into the preparedness overload coma. So here's what I came up with, and maybe it can help some of you all also.
I decorated with random preparedness items, like canned goods, flashlights, radios, etc. I brought my grinder, dehydrator, a few of my favorite preparedness books, my emergency kit, my son's kit, my car kit, and prizes!
I started by asking a few questions about preparedness in general: Why should we prepare? and What are we preparing for? Got some good answers from the ladies, and some good discussion. There are some great quotes and scriptures for this section.
When I was first starting, I gave them all a little piece of colored paper. I used three different colors--we had about 20 people show up. After the discussion about why we were preparing, I had them gather in "families" by color WITHOUT TALKING. Now, a couple of them didn't get the no talking memo, but it worked okay anyway. The first group together was supposed to get a prize, but I couldn't tell which group got together fastest, and some were disadvantaged due to physical limitations of some of the ladies there, so I just gave everybody Waterproof Matches for their emergency kits.
Then we had a discussion about making plans like evacuation plans and meeting place plans and how important it is that everybody in the family knows the plans.
For the next activity, I gave each "family" a piece of paper and pencil and gave them 2 minutes to write down everything they could think of to put in a 72 hour/emergency kit. The group with the most things on their list won lightsticks for their kits.
Then we had a discussion about emergency kits, evacuation kits, car kits, etc. Why they're a good idea, generally what to put in them, etc. I could only cover the basics--not enough time! I could have talked for the whole 90 minutes on ONE aspect of preparedness! Ugh.
The third activity was a wheat grinding race. I had brought my Country Living hand crank grain mill, and set it up on the counter. Each family chose a representative and they had 30 seconds to grind wheat into flour. The winning lady ground almost 1/2 cup in 30 seconds! When she was done, she said, "I decided I don't like bread all that much." Even with a nice mill, hand grinding grain is work! The winning family got energy bars and the losers got hydration drink mix packets for their kits. And I got a little over a cup of flour to take home that I didn't have to grind! :)
Then we discussed what we should store like 3 months of easy, normal foods, water, money, and longer term storage of staples like wheat, rice, beans, etc. Also the tools to use the food you have stored--like a way to grind your wheat or cook your meals if there was no power/gas/etc.
The final activity was a tasting game. I made chocolate chip cookies with bean flour in them. What? I haven't told you all about bean flour? You can grind white beans and use the flour as a substitute for up to 1/4 of any recipe's flour. If I do the full 1/4 of the recipe's flour in bean flour, I can taste the beans a little, so I go a little less than 1/4 of the flour total. Anyway, more about bean flour another time. I had made these cookies with bean flour in them and they each took a cookie and had to guess the secret ingredient. One of the ladies had heard me talk about bean flour before, so she guessed what it was although she couldn't taste it in the cookie. Fun.
Everybody got one of my famous dryer lint firestarters as a prize. I had to explain what it was, I will admit they look a little strange if you don't know what they are.
Then we talked about the importance of knowing what you have and how to use it. This includes your food stuffs and your gear. It is not okay to say that your husband knows how to load and fire the rifle or light the stove, YOU need to learn how to use your equipment. What if he's not there? What if you're not there? The best time for experimenting and learning is now, when there is no emergency.
Finally, I practically begged them NOT to go home, file the handouts and do nothing! Inventory your stuff, buy stuff, learn something new, etc. Do something--ANYTHING! Just get doing.
I gave them handouts with the general outline of what we had discussed as well as sample lists for an emergency kit, a car kit, what to grab to evacuate, and long term storage.
I cooked up an MRE for them to sample and also had pieces of the survival bars they could taste. Some of the ladies had brought homemade bread and jam, so there was some good food there also. I've had a few ladies comment since the activity that they went home and inventoried their food supplies or gathered gear for their emergency kits. Hooray for progress!
I decorated with random preparedness items, like canned goods, flashlights, radios, etc. I brought my grinder, dehydrator, a few of my favorite preparedness books, my emergency kit, my son's kit, my car kit, and prizes!
I started by asking a few questions about preparedness in general: Why should we prepare? and What are we preparing for? Got some good answers from the ladies, and some good discussion. There are some great quotes and scriptures for this section.
When I was first starting, I gave them all a little piece of colored paper. I used three different colors--we had about 20 people show up. After the discussion about why we were preparing, I had them gather in "families" by color WITHOUT TALKING. Now, a couple of them didn't get the no talking memo, but it worked okay anyway. The first group together was supposed to get a prize, but I couldn't tell which group got together fastest, and some were disadvantaged due to physical limitations of some of the ladies there, so I just gave everybody Waterproof Matches for their emergency kits.
Then we had a discussion about making plans like evacuation plans and meeting place plans and how important it is that everybody in the family knows the plans.
For the next activity, I gave each "family" a piece of paper and pencil and gave them 2 minutes to write down everything they could think of to put in a 72 hour/emergency kit. The group with the most things on their list won lightsticks for their kits.
Then we had a discussion about emergency kits, evacuation kits, car kits, etc. Why they're a good idea, generally what to put in them, etc. I could only cover the basics--not enough time! I could have talked for the whole 90 minutes on ONE aspect of preparedness! Ugh.
The third activity was a wheat grinding race. I had brought my Country Living hand crank grain mill, and set it up on the counter. Each family chose a representative and they had 30 seconds to grind wheat into flour. The winning lady ground almost 1/2 cup in 30 seconds! When she was done, she said, "I decided I don't like bread all that much." Even with a nice mill, hand grinding grain is work! The winning family got energy bars and the losers got hydration drink mix packets for their kits. And I got a little over a cup of flour to take home that I didn't have to grind! :)
Then we discussed what we should store like 3 months of easy, normal foods, water, money, and longer term storage of staples like wheat, rice, beans, etc. Also the tools to use the food you have stored--like a way to grind your wheat or cook your meals if there was no power/gas/etc.
The final activity was a tasting game. I made chocolate chip cookies with bean flour in them. What? I haven't told you all about bean flour? You can grind white beans and use the flour as a substitute for up to 1/4 of any recipe's flour. If I do the full 1/4 of the recipe's flour in bean flour, I can taste the beans a little, so I go a little less than 1/4 of the flour total. Anyway, more about bean flour another time. I had made these cookies with bean flour in them and they each took a cookie and had to guess the secret ingredient. One of the ladies had heard me talk about bean flour before, so she guessed what it was although she couldn't taste it in the cookie. Fun.
Everybody got one of my famous dryer lint firestarters as a prize. I had to explain what it was, I will admit they look a little strange if you don't know what they are.
Then we talked about the importance of knowing what you have and how to use it. This includes your food stuffs and your gear. It is not okay to say that your husband knows how to load and fire the rifle or light the stove, YOU need to learn how to use your equipment. What if he's not there? What if you're not there? The best time for experimenting and learning is now, when there is no emergency.
Finally, I practically begged them NOT to go home, file the handouts and do nothing! Inventory your stuff, buy stuff, learn something new, etc. Do something--ANYTHING! Just get doing.
I gave them handouts with the general outline of what we had discussed as well as sample lists for an emergency kit, a car kit, what to grab to evacuate, and long term storage.
I cooked up an MRE for them to sample and also had pieces of the survival bars they could taste. Some of the ladies had brought homemade bread and jam, so there was some good food there also. I've had a few ladies comment since the activity that they went home and inventoried their food supplies or gathered gear for their emergency kits. Hooray for progress!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Are You Prepared?
I got these questions on a handout from church a couple of weeks ago--See how you do or if there are areas you need work on. I had to ask sweet husband about a few of these . . . we still have work to do.
1. Has your family rehearsed fire escape routes from your home?
2. Does your family know what to do before, during and after an earthquake or other emergency?
3. Do you have heavy objects hanging over beds that can fall during an earthquake?
4. Do you have access to an operational flashlight in every occupied bedroom? (use of candles is not recommended unless you are sure there is no leaking gas)
5. Do you keep shoes near your bed to protect your feet against broken glass?
6. If a water line was ruptured during an earthquake, do you know how to shut off the main water line to your house?
7. Can this water valve be turned off by hand without the use of a tool? Do you have a tool if one is needed?
8. Do you know where the main gas shut-off valve to your house is located?
9. If you smell gas, do you know how and would you be able to shut off this valve?
10. Gas valves usually cannot be turned off by hand. Is there a tool near your valve?
11. Would you be able to safely restart your furnace when gas is safely available?
12. Do you have working smoke alarms in the proper places to warn you of fire? Carbon Monoxide alarms?
13. In case of a minor fire, do you have a fire extinguisher that you know how to operate?
14. Do you have duplicate keys and copies of important insurance and other papers stored outside your home?
15. Do you have a functional emergency radio to receive emergency information?
16. If you and your family had to evacuate your home, have you identified an outside meeting place?
If an emergency lasted for 3 days (72 hours) before help was available to you and your family . . .
17. Would you have sufficient food?
18. Would you have the means to cook food without gas and electricity?
19. Would you have sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and sanitary needs?
20. Do you have access to a 72-hour evacuation kit?
21. Would you be able to carry or transport these kits?
22. Have you established an out of state contact?
23. Do you have a first aid kit in your home and in each car?
24. Do you have work gloves and some tools for minor rescue and cleanup?
25. Do you have emergency cash on hand? (During emergencies banks and ATM machines are closed)
26. Without electricity and gas do you have means to heat at least part of your house? (Think of how to cover broken windows.)
27. If you need medications, do you have a month's supply on hand?
28. Do you have a plan for toilet facilities if there is an extended water shortage?
29. Do you have a supply of food, clothing, and fuel where appropriate: for 6 months? for a year?
Do not think that you are covered on any of these because your significant other knows the answer. My thinking is this: my husband is home on average only about 2/3 of each day, sometimes he's gone for 2-3 days at a time. And when he's not home, his job is such that he's usually out of cell range also. Therefore the liklehood of an emergency happening with him available to help is not very high. I need to know how to shut off my own water and gas and have the answers to these questions myself--just in case I'm the only adult around when something happens.
I've already put my order in with my husband for a "decorative" (and functional) outhouse in my back field :)
1. Has your family rehearsed fire escape routes from your home?
2. Does your family know what to do before, during and after an earthquake or other emergency?
3. Do you have heavy objects hanging over beds that can fall during an earthquake?
4. Do you have access to an operational flashlight in every occupied bedroom? (use of candles is not recommended unless you are sure there is no leaking gas)
5. Do you keep shoes near your bed to protect your feet against broken glass?
6. If a water line was ruptured during an earthquake, do you know how to shut off the main water line to your house?
7. Can this water valve be turned off by hand without the use of a tool? Do you have a tool if one is needed?
8. Do you know where the main gas shut-off valve to your house is located?
9. If you smell gas, do you know how and would you be able to shut off this valve?
10. Gas valves usually cannot be turned off by hand. Is there a tool near your valve?
11. Would you be able to safely restart your furnace when gas is safely available?
12. Do you have working smoke alarms in the proper places to warn you of fire? Carbon Monoxide alarms?
13. In case of a minor fire, do you have a fire extinguisher that you know how to operate?
14. Do you have duplicate keys and copies of important insurance and other papers stored outside your home?
15. Do you have a functional emergency radio to receive emergency information?
16. If you and your family had to evacuate your home, have you identified an outside meeting place?
If an emergency lasted for 3 days (72 hours) before help was available to you and your family . . .
17. Would you have sufficient food?
18. Would you have the means to cook food without gas and electricity?
19. Would you have sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and sanitary needs?
20. Do you have access to a 72-hour evacuation kit?
21. Would you be able to carry or transport these kits?
22. Have you established an out of state contact?
23. Do you have a first aid kit in your home and in each car?
24. Do you have work gloves and some tools for minor rescue and cleanup?
25. Do you have emergency cash on hand? (During emergencies banks and ATM machines are closed)
26. Without electricity and gas do you have means to heat at least part of your house? (Think of how to cover broken windows.)
27. If you need medications, do you have a month's supply on hand?
28. Do you have a plan for toilet facilities if there is an extended water shortage?
29. Do you have a supply of food, clothing, and fuel where appropriate: for 6 months? for a year?
Do not think that you are covered on any of these because your significant other knows the answer. My thinking is this: my husband is home on average only about 2/3 of each day, sometimes he's gone for 2-3 days at a time. And when he's not home, his job is such that he's usually out of cell range also. Therefore the liklehood of an emergency happening with him available to help is not very high. I need to know how to shut off my own water and gas and have the answers to these questions myself--just in case I'm the only adult around when something happens.
I've already put my order in with my husband for a "decorative" (and functional) outhouse in my back field :)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Resourcefulness and the Ugly Birthday Cake
You know usually I put up some sort of information I deem useful. I'm just like that. I'm prone to action rather than much thought (hey, don't take that too far--you know I think occasionally . .). Something happens and I think, "What can I DO about it?" and get busy instead of fretting over this and that and hashing out possible courses of action for too long. I like when things are happening NOW and hate waiting for anything. Anyway, all that aside, I'm posting thoughts today (don't expect them to get too deep) along with a little experience from last weekend (yeah, I'm that far behind).
My daughter's birthday was Sunday, so about Thursday I started thinking about it (did I mention I'm also prone to procrastination?). We had to go over the mountain so I could see yet another doctor on Friday and I took along a long list of things to get at the store. Unfortunately, the Dr appointment ran long and it's 2 1/2 hours one way to get there and we had to get back by 6:00 for a softball barbeque sweet husband had helped plan, so I didn't get much of my list done. Saturday we spent the day fishing with friends, so again I didn't get to the store.
Then Sunday rolled around. Sweet little daughter wanted a 3 layer cake with white frosting. Me and cakes do not get along, but I have pretty good success with cake mixes. On this day, however, I had no cake mix, and I really try not to shop on Sundays (besides the fact that there isn't a store open for 10 miles on Sundays around here), so I opted to use a recipe out of a local recipe book assuming that it would work for my altitude, etc. It sunk so bad it wasn't funny. Now of course I didn't start this project until about 3:00 so I really didn't have time to bake something else, so I cut it up and patched it together and made really the ugliest 3 layer cake I've ever seen. Whew.
Now to frost it. Of course I don't have a can of frosting, so I went to the food room in search of powdered sugar and alas, there was none to be found. (Powdered sugar is one of those "extras" in the food storage, and "extras" haven't been in the budget lately.) Hmmmmmm. How am I supposed to make frosting without powdered sugar??? We surely can't leave the cake looking as ugly as it did--it really did need some sort of covering on it. So I grabbed a cookbook and amazingly found a recipe for frosting that used regular sugar and egg whites (turned out kind of like really sweet meringue). So I whipped up a batch of that and frosted the ugly cake. My daughter was SO pleased to have her 3 layer cake with white frosting, just like she wanted, and I was saved by resourcefulness.
So the birthday cake experience really got me thinking about a couple of things. First, in order to be resourceful, you need some resources. You can't make something out of nothing. If I had no flour, sugar, eggs, good cookbook, etc. I would have had a real hard time making any kind of cake. Resources are also your acquired skills and a bit of creativity. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to "make something up" using skills and information I learned doing something else. Be willing to think outside the box and draw from your resources both physical and mental when faced with a challenge.
Second, it's nice to have the things you need to make what you need to make. It's much harder if you have to improvise certain things. You know, if you need to pound in a nail, wouldn't you rather have a hammer than a rock? It would have been much easier and a lot less time consuming to have pulled out a cake mix and can of frosting and made the cake that way. Or at least had a cake mix--frosting in a can isn't that good. Some things can be improvised if you don't have the tools you need, but some things simply cannot be done without the proper tools. Get the tools you need. Sometimes you don't know the tools you need until you try building/cooking/making, so get busy adding mental and physical resources to your gear.
That's about as deep as it gets around here. :)
My daughter's birthday was Sunday, so about Thursday I started thinking about it (did I mention I'm also prone to procrastination?). We had to go over the mountain so I could see yet another doctor on Friday and I took along a long list of things to get at the store. Unfortunately, the Dr appointment ran long and it's 2 1/2 hours one way to get there and we had to get back by 6:00 for a softball barbeque sweet husband had helped plan, so I didn't get much of my list done. Saturday we spent the day fishing with friends, so again I didn't get to the store.
Then Sunday rolled around. Sweet little daughter wanted a 3 layer cake with white frosting. Me and cakes do not get along, but I have pretty good success with cake mixes. On this day, however, I had no cake mix, and I really try not to shop on Sundays (besides the fact that there isn't a store open for 10 miles on Sundays around here), so I opted to use a recipe out of a local recipe book assuming that it would work for my altitude, etc. It sunk so bad it wasn't funny. Now of course I didn't start this project until about 3:00 so I really didn't have time to bake something else, so I cut it up and patched it together and made really the ugliest 3 layer cake I've ever seen. Whew.
Now to frost it. Of course I don't have a can of frosting, so I went to the food room in search of powdered sugar and alas, there was none to be found. (Powdered sugar is one of those "extras" in the food storage, and "extras" haven't been in the budget lately.) Hmmmmmm. How am I supposed to make frosting without powdered sugar??? We surely can't leave the cake looking as ugly as it did--it really did need some sort of covering on it. So I grabbed a cookbook and amazingly found a recipe for frosting that used regular sugar and egg whites (turned out kind of like really sweet meringue). So I whipped up a batch of that and frosted the ugly cake. My daughter was SO pleased to have her 3 layer cake with white frosting, just like she wanted, and I was saved by resourcefulness.
So the birthday cake experience really got me thinking about a couple of things. First, in order to be resourceful, you need some resources. You can't make something out of nothing. If I had no flour, sugar, eggs, good cookbook, etc. I would have had a real hard time making any kind of cake. Resources are also your acquired skills and a bit of creativity. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to "make something up" using skills and information I learned doing something else. Be willing to think outside the box and draw from your resources both physical and mental when faced with a challenge.
Second, it's nice to have the things you need to make what you need to make. It's much harder if you have to improvise certain things. You know, if you need to pound in a nail, wouldn't you rather have a hammer than a rock? It would have been much easier and a lot less time consuming to have pulled out a cake mix and can of frosting and made the cake that way. Or at least had a cake mix--frosting in a can isn't that good. Some things can be improvised if you don't have the tools you need, but some things simply cannot be done without the proper tools. Get the tools you need. Sometimes you don't know the tools you need until you try building/cooking/making, so get busy adding mental and physical resources to your gear.
That's about as deep as it gets around here. :)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Great Trials Lie Ahead--Prepare and Have Hope
You know I don't usually wax philosophical on this site or get all gloom and doomy, and I'm still not--you have to watch to the end. This video from David Christenson features words of Latter-day Saint prophets and apostles. If you are LDS (Mormon), you'll know who they are. If you are not LDS, you can choose to believe their messages are inspired or just enjoy a few good speakers--up to you. I debated before posting this as I know many of my readers are not LDS, but I felt the message in the video is worth sharing. Remember--watch it all the way through!!!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Glenn Beck on Personal Preparedness
I really enjoy Glenn Beck. We see eye to eye on a lot of issues (can't say all, but a lot), and he's not afraid to speak his mind. So here's a clip from his program 2/20/09 on preparedness:
That's probably enough for most of you. Don't go crazy and panic on me here, just one more voice saying we have a right to prepare ourselves for what may come. If that's not enough for you, okay, I'll give you more. If you want to see/hear him hash over some "worst case scenarios" with a few analysts, check these links:
Enough for me for the night. :) Instructions for making your own survival food bars tomorrow . . . see y'all then!
That's probably enough for most of you. Don't go crazy and panic on me here, just one more voice saying we have a right to prepare ourselves for what may come. If that's not enough for you, okay, I'll give you more. If you want to see/hear him hash over some "worst case scenarios" with a few analysts, check these links:
Enough for me for the night. :) Instructions for making your own survival food bars tomorrow . . . see y'all then!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Preppers Questions--My Answers
Thanks to Melonie at The Prepared Family for this one! The questions are originally from Chris at A One Acre Homestead in Ohio and are good for some thought provocation! So, as Melonie did, I'm inviting you to play tag. If you don't want to do this, don't, I'm not going to twist your arm, but I would hope if you don't want to post your answers, you at least think about them. For those who want to join in, post your answers on your blog and then leave me a link in the comments so I can read your answers!
Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle? Be as self sufficient as possible and able to help others who are not.
2-When did you start this lifestyle? At birth ;) Actually got serious about it around 1997-98 time and have had periods of great progress and slow to no progress since then.
3-What was your main motivation? My sweet family among other reasons. I never want to have to tell my kids I have nothing for them to eat. For more of my motivation, See here.
4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now? My mom did a lot of what I'm doing, but I didn't pay enough attention when I was younger, so I'm pretty much making it up as I go! :) Definitely no professional or schooling experience (I was a theater major!).
5-Does your spouse/signifiacant other (if you have one) share the same ideas? Absolutely. He was the primary motivating factor in getting going on our preparedness and self reliance.
6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids? Friends and family, mostly. They don't all know or care what all I'm doing all the time, but most of them know I'm a do-it-yourself junkie. My family mostly is also--guess it's in the genes! :)
My kids are fine with it, they're pretty little, so it's just the way things are. I try to get them involved where I can--I think that helps their understanding about what everything is for and why we want to stock food and supplies. They also know if we run out of something, we can usually go to the "food room" and get more.
7-How happy are you with your achievements so far? Very, although there's always something else I want to have or learn to do, I feel pretty comfortable with where we're at.
8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health concience, "green"' or a combination of several? Combination, heavier on gardener/prepper. Lighter on "green".
9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality? Nope, it's part of who I am at least since I entered adulthood.
10-Has it changed your view of your life before? What life before? Since I grew up in a fairly self sufficient home with a crazy mom who likes to garden/can/raise and eat chickens, rabbits, goats, etc./sew I've been around this type of living as long as I can remember.
11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay? If they want to naysay, I just leave them to it. It's their choice. Most people I've encountered want to learn more about self reliant living, so with them I'm willing to share what I've learned.
12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentence, what would you say? To quote Ezra Taft Benson, "The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."
Other Questions-
1-How large is your vegetable garden? Not big enough when we're harvesting, too big when we're weeding.
2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many? I have 6 baby fruit trees and a strawberry bed living, and grapes, raspberries, and blackberries that all died and need to be replaced.
3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets) Cat, dog, fish, and a horse. Planning on pigs this summer. We raised a lamb once, but when you're buying milk for it, they are not cost effective to raise.
4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. And anybody else's produce I can get my hands on.
5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...) Mostly hand tools for yard work and small jobs. We've got a shop full of my husband's power tools for building/welding/etc.
6-Do you compost? I'm giving it a try.
7-Do you recycle? Some. It's pretty inconvenient around here. The nearest recycling center is at least 2 hours away. So I guess mostly I "reuse".
8-Do you consider yourself energy concious? (conserving to save $) Fairly.
9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners? A couple, but mostly not. Look here! Another area to learn more about! :)
10-Do you make your own bread? Yep. Way better than store bread.
11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year?? Absolutely on the week. If all my utilities were working a month or year would be fine also. Fuel is my major problem with going a year--heating the house and cooking fuel.
12-Are you tired of answering questions yet? Nope. If I get tired, I'll take a break and come back and you'll never know I left.
13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items- Food, firearms, fuel, tools.
14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil? Not yet, but we're working on it.
15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity? Yep on our camp stove, barbeque, fire pit. Not indoors though.
16-Again, if in an emercency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.) Not comfortably, but we'd get by.
17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test) Not on purpose, although I'd like to. We practice when we go camping and when the power is out. Still the same problems--heating the house and eventually cooking although we have a gas range, so we can still light it when the power is out, just not if the gas is out.
18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food? Definitely fish, working on hunting.
19-If you don't prep, why not?
20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding? I can sew almost anything unless it's a button on my husband's shirt ;) . Mostly right now clothes are less expensive to buy already made than to buy fabric and notions and make them. But I can if I need to, and can definitely make repairs and alterations.
21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? lol thanks for playing!
I don't smoke, drink coffee, or have a cell phone, so I'm down to lighting a fire and field dressing a deer while answering questions, which I guess I could do, it just wouldn't be pretty to watch!
Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle? Be as self sufficient as possible and able to help others who are not.
2-When did you start this lifestyle? At birth ;) Actually got serious about it around 1997-98 time and have had periods of great progress and slow to no progress since then.
3-What was your main motivation? My sweet family among other reasons. I never want to have to tell my kids I have nothing for them to eat. For more of my motivation, See here.
4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now? My mom did a lot of what I'm doing, but I didn't pay enough attention when I was younger, so I'm pretty much making it up as I go! :) Definitely no professional or schooling experience (I was a theater major!).
5-Does your spouse/signifiacant other (if you have one) share the same ideas? Absolutely. He was the primary motivating factor in getting going on our preparedness and self reliance.
6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids? Friends and family, mostly. They don't all know or care what all I'm doing all the time, but most of them know I'm a do-it-yourself junkie. My family mostly is also--guess it's in the genes! :)
My kids are fine with it, they're pretty little, so it's just the way things are. I try to get them involved where I can--I think that helps their understanding about what everything is for and why we want to stock food and supplies. They also know if we run out of something, we can usually go to the "food room" and get more.
7-How happy are you with your achievements so far? Very, although there's always something else I want to have or learn to do, I feel pretty comfortable with where we're at.
8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health concience, "green"' or a combination of several? Combination, heavier on gardener/prepper. Lighter on "green".
9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality? Nope, it's part of who I am at least since I entered adulthood.
10-Has it changed your view of your life before? What life before? Since I grew up in a fairly self sufficient home with a crazy mom who likes to garden/can/raise and eat chickens, rabbits, goats, etc./sew I've been around this type of living as long as I can remember.
11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay? If they want to naysay, I just leave them to it. It's their choice. Most people I've encountered want to learn more about self reliant living, so with them I'm willing to share what I've learned.
12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentence, what would you say? To quote Ezra Taft Benson, "The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."
Other Questions-
1-How large is your vegetable garden? Not big enough when we're harvesting, too big when we're weeding.
2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many? I have 6 baby fruit trees and a strawberry bed living, and grapes, raspberries, and blackberries that all died and need to be replaced.
3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets) Cat, dog, fish, and a horse. Planning on pigs this summer. We raised a lamb once, but when you're buying milk for it, they are not cost effective to raise.
4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. And anybody else's produce I can get my hands on.
5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...) Mostly hand tools for yard work and small jobs. We've got a shop full of my husband's power tools for building/welding/etc.
6-Do you compost? I'm giving it a try.
7-Do you recycle? Some. It's pretty inconvenient around here. The nearest recycling center is at least 2 hours away. So I guess mostly I "reuse".
8-Do you consider yourself energy concious? (conserving to save $) Fairly.
9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners? A couple, but mostly not. Look here! Another area to learn more about! :)
10-Do you make your own bread? Yep. Way better than store bread.
11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year?? Absolutely on the week. If all my utilities were working a month or year would be fine also. Fuel is my major problem with going a year--heating the house and cooking fuel.
12-Are you tired of answering questions yet? Nope. If I get tired, I'll take a break and come back and you'll never know I left.
13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items- Food, firearms, fuel, tools.
14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil? Not yet, but we're working on it.
15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity? Yep on our camp stove, barbeque, fire pit. Not indoors though.
16-Again, if in an emercency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.) Not comfortably, but we'd get by.
17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test) Not on purpose, although I'd like to. We practice when we go camping and when the power is out. Still the same problems--heating the house and eventually cooking although we have a gas range, so we can still light it when the power is out, just not if the gas is out.
18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food? Definitely fish, working on hunting.
19-If you don't prep, why not?
20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding? I can sew almost anything unless it's a button on my husband's shirt ;) . Mostly right now clothes are less expensive to buy already made than to buy fabric and notions and make them. But I can if I need to, and can definitely make repairs and alterations.
21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? lol thanks for playing!
I don't smoke, drink coffee, or have a cell phone, so I'm down to lighting a fire and field dressing a deer while answering questions, which I guess I could do, it just wouldn't be pretty to watch!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Why I Do This Crazy Stuff
Why do I do all this crazy stuff? There's a few reasons I spend time and money on preparedness and self reliance. Here's my first 3 reasons:
I never want to have to look my kids in the eye and tell them I have nothing for them to eat or can't do anything to keep them warm or safe. I will do all I can to keep that from happening.
Fourth, my husband and I like to eat also. He gets real ornery if he doesn't eat (as most of us do) and I have no desire to go hungry at any time if I can do anything about it, so I do. I could always hit the store if a disaster comes along, but I really don't like to shop especially if there's crowds, so if there were a disaster and there was a run on the grocery store (there's only one here), I DO NOT want to be involved in it. I want to already have what I need or be able to make do with what I have so I don't need to be around a bunch of panicky people.
Fifth, natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, calamaties foretold by ancient and modern prophets. In our church, we have been told by our prophets to obtain a 3 month supply and year's supply of food. I believe the prophets. Whether we end up needing it in our lifetime or not, I'm obeying.
Sixth, it's fun. I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing I can fix it, grow it, build it, sew it (and I'm one of those that hates asking for help even when it's obvious I need it).
Seventh, money doesn't grow on trees (too bad or I'd plant some of them out with my baby fruit trees!). Love the pioneer adage: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. I grew up that way, and am raising my family that way.
I'm sure there are more reasons, I just can't think of them right now! :) What's your reason?
I never want to have to look my kids in the eye and tell them I have nothing for them to eat or can't do anything to keep them warm or safe. I will do all I can to keep that from happening.
Fourth, my husband and I like to eat also. He gets real ornery if he doesn't eat (as most of us do) and I have no desire to go hungry at any time if I can do anything about it, so I do. I could always hit the store if a disaster comes along, but I really don't like to shop especially if there's crowds, so if there were a disaster and there was a run on the grocery store (there's only one here), I DO NOT want to be involved in it. I want to already have what I need or be able to make do with what I have so I don't need to be around a bunch of panicky people.
Fifth, natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, calamaties foretold by ancient and modern prophets. In our church, we have been told by our prophets to obtain a 3 month supply and year's supply of food. I believe the prophets. Whether we end up needing it in our lifetime or not, I'm obeying.
Sixth, it's fun. I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing I can fix it, grow it, build it, sew it (and I'm one of those that hates asking for help even when it's obvious I need it).
Seventh, money doesn't grow on trees (too bad or I'd plant some of them out with my baby fruit trees!). Love the pioneer adage: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. I grew up that way, and am raising my family that way.
I'm sure there are more reasons, I just can't think of them right now! :) What's your reason?
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